Fig. 4.

Translational coincidence as a mechanism for seasonal adaptation in algae. a Schematic adapted from Seaton et al. [54] depicting the translational coincidence mechanism. The top graphic represents the shortest photoperiod of the year, the winter solstice (December 21, 2010); the bottom graphic represents the longest photoperiod of the year, the summer solstice (June 21, 2010). An ORF (green line) peaking in the early night during short day (SD) conditions (top) would peak in the late day during long day (LD) conditions (bottom). Because the average translation rate (red line) is much higher during daylight hours than night hours (gray boxes), an ORF peaking in this “seasonal adaptation window” (orange) would be upregulated in LD at the protein level. b Top non-organellar cluster annotations from the large size class of our drift track that are significantly diel and peak in the seasonal adaptation window (orange dashed lines). Pies are colored by relative taxonomic contribution and scaled to reflect proportional transcript abundance (legends, right)